Lok Satta demands amendment of Anti-corruption laws

Against the backdrop of the Congress and the Telugu Desam parties hurling corruption charges against each other once again, the Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government introduce a Bill in the budget session of the Assembly to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to bring the guilty to book.

Talking to the media, party spokespersons Mr.Katari Srinivasa Rao, Mr. V.Laxman Balaji accused the mainstream political parties of indulging in hypocrisy in that they revel in exchanging charges of massive corruption against each other but collude with each other in preventing the creation of an effective mechanism to tackle the menace.

They recalled that the Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan had circulated a Bill to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act in June 2009 with stringent provisions but both the mainstream parties cold-shouldered it for obvious reasons.

Dr. JP’s Bill proposes that all members of Parliament and the State Legislature, and elected members of panchayats, municipalities, and municipal corporations be deemed as public servants and brought under the ambit of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The need to amend the Act has become more imperative now with the TDP and the Congress leveling charges against each other once again, sections of the media reporting that the Anti Corruption Bureau has been hamstrung in raiding some highly corrupt top officials, that politicians have grabbed vast tracts of Wakf land, and that a large number of top officials are guilty of irregularities in irrigation projects’ construction.

The Lok Satta leaders wanted the anti corruption laws to provide for:

• Seizure and forfeiture of property of corrupt public servants
  
• Establishment of special anti-corruption courts in each district
  
• Appointment of independent prosecutors drawn from judiciary
  
• Constitution of an independent anti-corruption agency functioning under the overall supervision of the Lok Ayukta and
  
• Integration of the working of the myriad agencies and mechanisms like departmental enquiry, Tribunal for Disciplinary Proceedings, Public Servants’ Inquiry Act, Commissionerate of Enquiries, Vigilance Commission and Lok Ayukta.